Australia’s international television channel, the Australia Network, will be available to an additional 25 million viewers in the Indian sub-continent later in November 2013.
Following an agreement recently signed between the ABC and India’s public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, Australia Network will be delivered Direct-to-Home (DTH) via satellite on DD Direct, operated by the Doordashan television service – a division of Prasar Bharati.
To mark the launch of the new service, the ABC’s agenda-setting panel discussion programme, Q&A, broadcast live from Delhi on November 18, 2013.
Also in November 2013, ABC International launches a new website for India, AustraliaPlus.com/India – the new digital home of the best of Australian content covering arts and culture, business, education, health, lifestyle, news and current affairs, science, sports, technology and travel. The website will be offering content in both English and Hindi as well as an Indian news feed from Doordashan. The website’s launch closely follows the introduction of ABC International’s Chinese mobile phone App into the China market in October 2013.
“As 2013 nears an end, we are seeing an enormous growth in the sharing of content between India and Australia through a number of channels,” the CEO of ABC International Lynley Marshall said. “Our partnership with Doordashan means that Australian content will find a whole new audience in India. What is also exciting is that through our new Indian website, as well as closer connections being developed with some of India’s leading media companies such as The Times of India and New Delhi TV, there is significantly more opportunity to share ideas and produce content that is relevant to audiences in both countries. Examples of this are projects already in pre-production such as the marking of the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign and a cricket series highlighting the best from our shared archives”.
Marshall said the initiatives reflected the growing demand for more information about contemporary Australian life, the growing connections in business, education and tourism and the people to people links.”
Australia Network is currently available in key metropolitan markets across the Indian sub-continent via a number of regional cable and satellite television operators.
